Seven hundred Iowa soldiers are headed home from Operation Enduring Freedom. Lieutenant Colonel Greg Hapgood says they’re all part of one big task force that’s already left the middle east. Task Force 168 has been in Afghanistan for a year and they’ve returned to the U.S. Right now they’re “out-processing” at Fort Hood, Texas, where Hapgood says “they’re itchin’ to come home.” Many of the 700 soldiers who comprise Task Force 168, many are from western Iowa…but others, from units all over the state, were pulled in to give it more flexibility, he says. There will be twelve separate homecoming ceremonies, in all parts of the state — east, west, north and southern regions of the state, he says all will be affected by this homecoming. Hapgood says Task force 168 is a very special unit put together for a specific purpose. It’s based on an infantry battalion, the First Battalion 168th Infantry — but they’ve added specialized soldiers including engineers, medics, people with expertise in supplies, all to “work a mission that has to do with protecting a number of different rebuilding entities over in Afghanistan.”
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